


I Am the Blood Cry

by for_t2



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Dark Magic, Deal with a Devil, Death, F/F, Loneliness, Manipulation, Post-Canon, Prophecy, Vampire Slayer(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26163658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/for_t2/pseuds/for_t2
Summary: If Buffy was in danger, Faith would be willing to make any deal with the devil
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Buffy Summers
Kudos: 30





	I Am the Blood Cry

Faith grabbed her stake before she flipped to the next page of her comic book. There was only one person who knew where she was, and if any of the Scoobies had asked Giles about her, he'd have warned her first. Anyone else who might've been looking for her wouldn't be the type to knock first. Not if they didn't have to, at least.

Faith flipped another page as the knocking continued, getting harder with ever tap. Vampires were a classic (the classic, even) and as much as it would be nice to take a break from hunting down rogue slayers, and as flattering as it was that they'd go to all the effort of tracking down the shitty little motel room she'd been staying in the last couple weeks, she only had a few pages left in the comic, and vampires really need to work on their patience, and she had really been looking to reading-- 

The next knock was hard enough to make the door shudder in its frame.

"Alright!" She had a feeling it wouldn't be last knock. And that Giles probably didn't want to have to pay for another bout of property damage. "I'm not anywhere you fucking undead..."

"Faith?" For all the vampires she was expecting, the rogue slayer she was chasing definitely wasn't one of them. "Help."

Eli had been one of the youngest of the new slayers activated by Will's spell and she had also proved to be one of the slipperiest, two things she had used to her deadly advantage to first go on a killing spree in her school, and then her neighbourhood, and then... Well, then Faith had spent the better part of a couple of months chasing her all around Sweden.

"Please. I don't know where else to go. I... Just please help me." 

I took Faith a moment before the sight of the girl shivering in the Gothenburg rain made it through her defences. "Yeah." And another moment for them to raise back up. This was too easy.

"Please."

But if there was a chance, however small and improbable, that she didn't have to kill another girl in the name of justice, she'd take it. "Coffee?" Faith tried to sound friendly, even if she didn't let go of the stake. If there was one thing she had learned in the last couple months, it's that Swedes had an unhealthy obsession with the drink (and Faith was no stranger to unhealthy obsessions), and it seemed like a better place to start than 'hey, so about all the people you killed'.

Eli shook her head frantically. "It won't make them stop."

"Make who stop?" Faith swore internally. If someone had been blackmailing the kid-- 

"No!" Eli snapped towards the wall, voice as hoarsely aggressive as she could make it, before quickly turning back to Faith, eyes even more desperate. "Them. The people I've... They won't stop telling me things."

Ah. "It's called guilt, kiddo." Faith knew the feeling well. How the memories never-- 

"No! It's them. Literally them! They keep-- Shut up!" Eli's attention snapped back at the wall, entirely diverted away from Faith. "I can't." For what seemed like an eternity, Eli just stared in silence. "I can't. She'll kill me." With just one glance back at Faith. "I should tell her."

Faith, slowly, cautiously tried a step towards her. "Tell me what?"

"They keep telling me the apocalypse is coming." Faith didn't like the way her voice hollowed out. "And I can stop it."

Too late, Faith realised she had left the rest of her weapons sitting open on the bed. That Eli had managed to make her way between Faith and bed.

And just a fraction too late, Faith dived for them.

Eli's fingers closed around Faith's knife. Swung back around in time to meet Faith's lunge. To swish a trail of blood across Faith's face.

But when Faith scrambled back to her feet after dodging was almost a fatal blow, she was faster. Fast enough to meet Eli halfway to her next attack.

The fight was short.

And it ended... 

"That's where I stabbed you, isn't it?" The voice from the door made every inch of Faith's body and mind freeze halfway through catching her breath. "It must hurt."

The knife in her hand suddenly seemed a lot heavier and the blood so much warmer.

"So this is what you do now?" Buffy didn't move away from the door. "You run off on your own again without a word, you don't call, and when I finally find you... You're killing our girls?"

"It's not like that, B."

"It sure as hell looks like that from where I'm standing." 

Faith forced herself to breath. "Not everyone can handle being a slayer. Having that type of power. the power you gave them. And somebody has to clean up the messes, Buffy. If I can't help them..." But she still didn't dare turn around and look Buffy in the eye. "Giles gave me a mission."

"I bet you just jumped all over it, didn't you?" The more the scorn took over Buffy's voice, the less frozen Faith felt and the readier to punch something. It wasn't an improvement. "I should've known you'd start killing again after we wiped you prison record."

"I..." If there was any other way or anyone else who could... "I swear. It's not like that."

Buffy scoffed. "You promised you'd help me train them. Look after them. Didn't I say I couldn't do it without you?"

Faith had promised, all those nights ago when that old school bus broke down halfway from the brand new Sunnydale crater to a destination they hadn't decided on yet. If there was anyone she wouldn't break a promise to it's, Buffy. "I'm trying my best." Only if she knew that Buffy needed... As Buffy circled around to face her, the sound of her footsteps hit an instinct. They were far too quiet.

"I should've known better than to trust you." Faith couldn't hear the rhythm of Buffy's heartbeat either. Or the faint tingle of the slayer magic. "Once a murderer, always a murderer."

If Buffy...

Oh, shit.

"We killed you."

The First stopped in its tracks. Contorted Buffy's mouth into a smirk. "You defeated me. You can't kill me." It stepped right up to Faith. "Believe me, people have been trying since before the Old Ones started killing each other. People have tried magic so powerful that it would fry your brain if you tried to comprehend it. I am a part of the universe itself and you, Faith Lehane, I am a part of you."

"Fucking right we defeated you." Faith refused to let herself be intimated (or, at least, to appear as if she was intimated). "Should've known you'd want to come back and get your ass kicked again."

The First rolled Buffy's eyes. "Well, I still can't say I've ever met a smart slayer."

"What did you do her?" Faith jabbed the bloody knife in the direction's of Eli's body.

"She was pathetically easy to manipulate." It glanced at the body and let out an unimpressed sigh. "But then, so are you."

"Why?" Faith's not entirely resolved rage issues were starting to come back, stronger than ever. "I'm not going to ask twice." 

"Or what? You're going to wave a knife at an incorporeal higher power?" The First chuckled in a way that sounded so wrong coming from Buffy's lips. "Do you think it would impress Buffy?" 

"Well I'm not going to stand here and listen to another boring speech." Faith grabbed her leather jacket and her boots. She need to call Giles right away. She need to call Buffy and-- 

"You can't stop me from whispering in your ear, Faith." It let out another unimpressed sigh as Faith reached for the doorknob. "Or you could try listening to why I want you."

Faith stopped just before she stepped out. Wavered. It could be tactical, but this was almost certainly a terrible idea. "What?"

"The problem with prophecies is that they're so easy to lose. A library burns down, or a scroll falls off a caravan, or a kid decides to practice their artistic talents on a parchment, it's so easy to just lose one forever. But their power doesn't go away just because the words stop getting passed on." The First waited until Faith had turned all the way back round to face it. "There are a lot of prophecies about slayers, you know?"

"Cut to the point."

"It's adorable how loyal you are to her. How desperate you are for her to look at you like you're something beautiful. Like you're something she could love." The First chuckled again. "Even after she stabbed you and left you to rot in prison." It raised a hand to interrupt Faith just as she opened her mouth. "But how far are you really willing to go for her?" 

And as always when it came to Buffy, Faith acted before she thought. "As far as I need to."

"Good." Faith's stomach sank at the way the First's grin got wider. "All I need is a little bit of blood. Not a lot, just a little, fresh with the pure power of the original slayer line."

"No way."

"Oh, come on." The First tried to use Buffy's pout against her. "I'm immortal. I set in motion plots that won't even begin until long after the world's forgotten your name. And unfortunately for you, your slayer doesn't have that long."

Faith wasn't a good liar, or good at telling when other people were lying, but somehow, by some slayer instinct maybe, she knew that the First wasn't lying (at least, not entirely). "If you hurt her--"

"I'm trying to make a deal with you. You give me your blood willingly, and I'll tell you where to find the lost prophecy that's going to kill Buffy." The First sneered at her. "Just think fast. You've got maybe a couple days before everything starts going to hell."

Faith stayed silent as her mind raced with thoughts of prophecies, of slayers, of the day Buffy had died, of the Battle of Sunnydale, of the day Buffy came back, of the promises she had made, of the way Giles had told her she was the slayer who did what had to be done, of... of Buffy.

The First stepped up to Faith one last time, and smiled at her so much like Buffy that Faith desperately wanted to believe it. "And Faith?" Wanted to feel it when it reached out for her cheek. "Just remember that I'll always be here for you." As it brushed the ghost of a kiss across her lips.

And then it faded away, leaving Faith alone. 

And Faith couldn't stop thinking about Buffy. Because it always came down to her, always would, and Faith would always want it to. "Wait." The First re-appeared, looking more like Buffy than ever. "I'll do it."


End file.
